JW Anderson: Inspirational optimistic volumes

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
Feb 17, 2020

All about volumes at JW Anderson, whose hyper dimensioned collection made for an inspirational moment in London on Monday.

Anderson telegraphed his idea with his invitation to his show in Yeoman House. Which featured a black photocopy of a massive spherical shaggy dress. Primitive screen printing – where the image becomes an architectural silhouette, just an outline even.
 
Like most of this collection, with its humungous shapes; 24-inch collars; curvaceous shoulders and exaggerated flares. Many dresses with shoulders finished with shards of antique celluloid that looked like ice, or even plastic seaweed. Which was faintly weird, but rather wonderful.

“Making an entrance. Playing with textures and volumes. Blowing up and reducing. Nouveau chic somehow, like that moment in the 20s when everything resurged and rebounded,” explained Anderson, who took his bow in a very-worn brown hoodie and faded light blue jeans.
 
The 20s seen notably in a remarkable pink and turquoise knit dress with subtle puff shoulders. Throughout, Anderson played with odd modular shapes, creating these large structures thanks to circular knitting. 

Other dramatic looks included shawl-collared tuxedos and, most startlingly, a pair of sack dresses that looked like bashed-in fantasy beer cans; a sort of JW Anderson composite Special Brew. 
 
“There was a time when I was obsessed by the Guinness ads, with horses running. Not to be clichéd and Irish. But I liked the typography of Guinness – gold, and black with a touch of silver. And I like the result of crushing a can by standing on it. So those big massive coats felt slightly like the early 90s people shooting in Donegal. That sort of moment, that revealed itself when we were making the collection,” he laughed.
 
Next stop on the hyper-active Anderson agenda, the Moncler launch in 48 hours in Milan, when the Ulsterman joins the Moncler Genius project.